Welcome to the Loyola Writing Department

The Writing Department at Loyola offers one of the very few undergraduate writing majors in the country. Rather than learning how to write within the strict structures of a single discipline, our students can explore, study, and practice a wide variety of forms.

There is a breadth to our department that few other programs can offer at the undergraduate level. Courses in rhetoric, professional writing, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose foster a balance of analysis, precision of language, and creativity not found within many disciplines.

The study of writing is distinctly different than the study of literature, philosophy, or history. Though these other disciplines also begin with closely reading a text, a student studying writing is focused on how these readings operate, what makes us love the language that engages us, and how to use these skills to hone our own communications.

Also, there is an abundance of evidence that knowing how to articulate one's self – that knowing how to write – makes all the difference in one’s career and can separate the average from the exceptional in fields such as law, medicine, or business.

The Jesuit tradition of nurturing a curious, critical, and articulate mind is alive and well here. The Writing Department aims to cultivate discerning thoughts that deftly articulate the mind. We follow in the tradition that writing is the necessary scaffolding of such thinking – and that such thinking is the foundation to a rich and successful life.

Visit the Writing Department FAQs page for more information about our department and what students can accomplish by studying writing.

The Loyola Writing Center

Run by the department but open to all Loyola students, the Writing Center offers assistance to students who need help in all stages of writing – brainstorming, organizing, and revising. The Writing Center also offers students an opportunity to begin learning how to teach writing as consultants. Visit the Writing Center page for more information.